As mentioned in my previous article related to cruising, we are not cruisers. With only a handful of

As mentioned in my previous article related to cruising, we are not cruisers. With only a handful of cruises under our belt, I am rather fascinated to cruise Cruise Critic (CC) to check out what is going on in the world of cruising, from a consumer's point of view. There is so much passion, so much information, misinformation, and tips on every single cruise brand's message boards. But enough of the reading, I wanted to take a cruise.
I could have asked questions, but most questions anyone might possibly have are probably already asked and answered, so just wander around! This is my long review of a short, but very memorable cruise, this was my experience. All errors, clunkers and omissions are all mine.
Last week we boarded the Golden Princess for a lightening fast 3 night cruise to Ensenada round trip from Los Angeles. Well, what a tease. I want to stow away for the upcoming Cape Horn voyage in December. To say I "escaped completely" to borrow Princess' positioning line, would be putting it mildly.
Despite this being a short cruise, we packed in loads and loads of doing absolutely nothing. Except relaxing, more relaxing and enjoying some really good food and wine. California residents, or people with easy access to the port take note, nothing can touch these 3 or 4 day Princess cruises round trip out of LA for recharging and simply having a marvelous time at a very reasonable cost. Most especially right now with a remarkable new promotion running through October 31, 2013, where Princess will credit the full cost of designated 3 and 4 night cruises out of LA as future cruise credit (FCC) towards any Princess cruise of 7 nights or longer, through December 31, 2014.
Let me disclose here that we paid our own passage. I do not, nor does this publication, port of tampa dinner cruise have any business dealings with Cruise Critic and Princess Cruises. Actually, it was an anniversary cruise for my husband and myself.
This was our gift to ourselves. Embarkation at the San Pedro World Cruise Terminal was painless. We packed into a carry-on bag a desire to decompress and some carefully selected sentimental wines. We were directed over to a desk to pay the corkage. Princess allows
one bottle of wine or Champagne per passenger without charge and each and every subsequent bottle incurs a $15 corkage fee. Fair enough. Hard liquor and beer are prohibited. Soda and water are allowed, so knock yourself out on that front. We happily paid our corkage fees. But as we saw onboard, Princess sports an extensive, reasonably priced wine list. However, we wanted to enjoy our own special wines at dinner. More on wine later!
Personally, I really wish some folks on many cruise line boards over at Cruise Critic would stop trying to circumvent the various alcohol policies. It makes for dull reading and importantly, it just is not right. I saw recently port of tampa dinner cruise on CC a long time cruiser who cheerfully posted she was directed over to the "pay for the corkage table", but she said no one was looking, so she kept walking towards embarkation. Would you expect to bring a bottle of wine into a restaurant without paying corkage? Don't even get me started about Rum Runners. Please allow me to explain what "Run Runners" are, as best I can. I believe these are flat plastic port of tampa dinner cruise flasks that are marketed as being able to fly under the radar with liquor inside when luggage is scanned, as they are supposedly not detectable. But why bother, why cheat? Who wants to pour any beverage out of nasty little plastic thingies? Why not simply order a bottle of the hard stuff from the cruise line and have it delivered to your cabin?
So, for anyone port of tampa dinner cruise reading this and wondering if Princess checks and scans your luggage in LA, of course. And they are checking at San Pedro for alcohol, most especially, I suspect, on 3 and 4 day cruises. It is called revenue. What occurs in Europe on longer cruises does necessarily happen here in LA at embarkation.
Also to note, we sailed on a Monday. I have no idea if the weekend cruises are similar to the infamous weekend booze cruises offered out of LA by other brands. This new cruise itinerary on Princess that we sailed was not that, in any way, shape or form. For the most part, it was very indicative of Princess' core market. Certainly there were a lot of first-timers and what greater way to test drive cruising than a quick, well-priced 3 day cruise? Without a formal night on such a short cruise, many folks still dressed for dinner. There was no argy-bargy with twenty-somethings running amok letting their hair down. Not that there is anything wrong with that! I just don't personally want it up close and at sea, on a cruise. It was not evident to us on this Princess voyage, even if it did happen. So Princess port of tampa dinner cruise has definitely broken the mold with their new, quickie Ensenada/Catalina/San Diego/Santa Barbara cruises. Kudos.
Our cabin was in a terrific location. One of those much-liked (by some, opinions seem split) mini-suite cabins with an extended balcony one reads about on Cruise Critic. We loved our cabin. Once I sailed Alaska with Celebrity when my son was a lot younger than he is today and we took an inside cabin. It was a Mum and Son trip and an inside was a massive mistake on my part for that itinerary, for us. For us, since then, an inside is a mistake on any itinerary of ours. I love the smell and sound of the sea, from my stateroom. Different strokes for different folks. Everything in this article port of tampa dinner cruise is my personal opinion, as it was in my last piece about cruising. I saw a few comments after that opinion piece was published ranging from "excellent article" through to the notion that "this guy needs to be hit about the backside of the head with a wet noodle" through to "this guy is really unprofessional with his opinions, this is not his personal blog." Well, this again is an opinion port of tampa dinner cruise piece. Your own experience and opinions port of tampa dinner cruise may well be very different.
The design of our cabin had loads of clever storage, on a longer voyage this would definitely come in handy. The decor of the cabin is a little dated, port of tampa dinner cruise not to mention the bathroom needing some lipstick (read do-over) but we liked our cabin, a great deal.
Which is where from stage left, our truly kind, warm cabin steward must enter. Heinrich made our very short stay onboard very memorable. In our limited experience with cruising, we have met six or seven cabin stewards, every single of these stewards treated us very, very well. However, in three short days, Heinrich easily took first place ranking. There was not one single item or request we might have that he had not already thought of. So we did not really have any requests, Heinrich anticipated
our every need. I will admit that being relatively new LA beach transplants to the California desert, I crave bubble baths. Please allow me to explain why. Our new desert home does not have a bathtub, we have only showers. So, part of our "escaping completely" was for us to take multiple bubble baths in three days! Thank goodness for the water processing systems onboard, which are remarkable. Heinrich kept us well stocked in bath gel and other assorted goodies. Our cabin became our personal spa. To celebrate our anniversary, Heinrich cast his magic wand around port of tampa dinner cruise our cabin to create a beautiful, romantic setting. It was a lovely surprise that was very much appreciated.
Heinrich so much wanted to make sure we had everything we might possibly need/want/desire.even if we hadn't thought of it. There was nothing port of tampa dinner cruise overlooked on Heinrich's watch. I cannot express enough how this gentleman made such a difference to our total cruise experience. In short, he took great care of us. I truly think this is where Princess really excels, a major market port of tampa dinner cruise brand that is capable of personalizing and tailoring the cruise experience to what an individual is looking for. More on this later. No cruise brand can be everything to everyone, however, Princess comes very darned close. This little voyage had a wide range of demographics and cultures. I would wager a bet that most everyone onboard found something that would make their West Coast Getaway special to them, regardless of their diverse interests and expectations.
Overall, the Golden Princess is very lovely, the public spaces were recently redone. port of tampa dinner cruise Princess Cruises have this thing called Movies port of tampa dinner cruise Under The Stars, which translates to MUTS. It is a massive screen, viewable from two different decks. It looked wonderful. We saw folks snuggled under blankets, happily snacking on popcorn/candy, reclining on loungers while enjoying a flick at night and during the day, a wide range of concerts or sporting events are played. port of tampa dinner cruise Fabulous, but not for us, at least on this short voyage. We wanted to veg out in our cabin and if we were going to watch a movie, we had our cabin to retreat to. As mentioned, we liked our cabin a lot.
Let me now attempt to convey the joy we experienced with food onboard. Hovering near the top of my list would have to be my sheer delight in finding one brunch/lunch time in the Horizon Court (the buffet) Cornish pasties. Full disclosure, I hate buffets, but not on Princess. Being English and having lived in the US for close to thirty years, I still crave meat pies, fish and chips and Cornish pasties. I do not have them often, or done well, if you can find them, living in America. Yes, English stodge, but if you grew up with it, you miss it! Having said that, the Cornish pasties from the buffet were outstanding. A little more meat than I am used to, in my family we usually have more carrots and potatoes. But they were amazing, the pastry was excellent and guess what? I also found a bottle of HP Sauce, which is required IMO, to eat any pasty. That was all I had from the buffet, delicious Cornish pasties with HP sauce. I am not divulging how many I scarfed down, but I was a very happy camper.
port of tampa dinner cruise For the day at sea, the Crown Grill morphed into an "English Pub" and let me say I was very happy with my choice of steak and kidney pie. Not an enclosed, fully crus